Graeme, as has already been said, simplicity of operation and a full-featured HT receiver don't go together very well. Specifically referring to Denon, you're find that although the receivers are excellent, the manuals are widely regarded as among the hardest to understand, and few find that the Yamahas are more complicated to operate.
As to HDMI 1.3 compared to 1.2 which you have, players and receivers having that capability can output and input the new audio formats present in Blu-ray discs in their native "bitstream" form rather than having the decoding to PCM take place in the player. The receiver then would decode it to PCM, do further processing such as bass management and convert it with the usual DAC to analog for amplifying. This isn't of any particular advantage, as the decoding in well-designed players is as good as that done in receivers.
If the on-screen display with HDMI and other superior 3808 features(e.g., Audyssey MultEQ XT)are important to you, go with it, but expect a period of required learning and experimentation.
